articles pass altogether from them. The old clothes shops of the Blue
Town were filled in this way with Tartar spoils, so that we had the
opportunity of selecting exactly the sort of things we required, to suit
the new costume we had adopted.

At the first shop we visited they showed us a quantity of wretched
garments turned up with sheep-skin; but though these rags were
exceedingly old, and so covered with grease that it was impossible to
guess at their original colour, the price asked for them was exorbitant.
After a protracted haggling, we found it impossible to come to terms, and
we gave up this first attempt; and we gave it up, be it added, with a
certain degree of satisfaction, for our self-respect was somewhat wounded
at finding ourselves reduced even to the proposition of wearing such
filthy rags. We visited another shop, and another, a third, and a
fourth, and still several more. We were shown magnificent garments,
handsome garments, fair garments, endurable garments, but the
consideration of expense was, in each instance, an impracticable
stumbling-block. The journey we had undertaken might endure for several
years, and extreme economy, at all events in the outset, was
indispensable. After going about the whole day, after making the
acquaintance of all the rag-merchants in the Blue Town, after turning
over and over all their old clothes, we were fain to return to the
secondhand dealer whom we had first visited, and to make the best bargain
we could with him. We purchased from him, at last, two ancient robes of
sheepskin, covered with some material, the nature of which it was
impossible to identify, and the original colour of which we suspected to
have been yellow. We proceeded to try them on, and it was at once
evident that the tailor in making them had by no means had us in his eye.
M. Gabet's robe was too short, M. Huc's too long; but a friendly exchange
was impracticable, the difference in height between the two missionaries
being altogether too disproportionate. We at first thought of cutting
the excess from the one, in order to make up the deficiency of the other;
but then we should have had to call in the aid of a tailor, and this
would have involved another drain upon our purse; the pecuniary
consideration decided the question, and we determined to wear the clothes
as they were, M. Huc adopting the expedient of holding up, by means of a
girdle, the surplus of his robe, and M. Gabet resigning hims